Skittish under heavy braking.

[Howley]

Well that won't be a problem because I have no money to spend. If I can't help the situation with adjustments I'll just have to deal with it for now.

[bikepilot]

Describe the skittish stuff a bit more and maybe we can help you move in the right direction with free or nearly-free tweaks.  Did you put fresh oil in the new forks when you put them on?  If so, what oil level did you go with?

[Howley]

The forks were new old stock so I didn't touch the oil.
By skittish I mean loose, almost like it's intermittently locking up, and like it has very little traction.

[ducpainter]

The forks were new old stock so I didn't touch the oil.
By skittish I mean loose, almost like it's intermittently locking up, and like it has very little traction.

Did you verify they had oil from the factory?

[bikepilot]

^

And that steering head bearings are properly adjusted and in good shape?  Forks really shouldn't make a huge diff on traction like that. Your problem really doesn't sound like the typical sub-par monster damping.  That's more like something is way, way out of whack.  No oil, way too much oil, compression settings maxed out one way or another, loose steering head bearings, really shot wheel bearings etc.

[Howley]

I didn't check they had oil, just kinda assumed. Head bearings are ok (not loose), forks aren't bottoming out (according to the zip tie on the slider), compression settings are on the baseline (few clicks out, can't remember exactly), and wheel bearings seem good, not loose or anything.